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How and Why Trump Won, What It Means,
And What Happens Next.

“…The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god.”
– Thomas Jefferson

The Presidential Election of 2016 was not just an election, it was a revolution.

Businessman and real estate mogul Donald J. Trump pulled off the greatest political upset in American history. He is a novice politician who – at 70 years of age – campaigned with incredible grit and stamina to win the American presidency against all odds.

Despite many setbacks (many of which were self-inflicted), Trump ultimately earned the respect of many doubters and critics as he campaigned relentlessly during the final weeks of the campaign in the face of withering attacks from all sides.

In securing this victory, Trump not only had to fight the Democratic Party and the Clinton machine, he also had to fight much of the Republican establishment… all of the mainstream Media… sneering Hollywood celebrities, pretentious singers, and snarky comedians… as well as the “nattering nabobs of negativism” on the right, including leading conservative intellectuals such as the “NeverTrumpers” at the late William F. Buckley’s “National Review.”

Many people on both sides of the political divide are still shocked by his upset. His victory was especially improbable when you consider the fact that the mainstream media became an active participant in the campaign and did their very best to brand Trump as a racist, a bigot, a xenophobe, a misogynist, and a loose cannon who is basically a combination of Raging Bull and Dr. Strangelove.

While the media staged their assault in print and across the airwaves, Trump also had to deal with real violence on the ground. Hillary Clinton paid agitators to go in and disrupt his rallies and then blamed it on the “environment of violence” Trump was creating.

Mrs. Clinton’s lap dogs in the mainstream media twisted his words into pretzels over and over and then screamed “racist!” “bigot!” “woman hater!” “Muslim hater!”… despite the fact there is no credible evidence for any of those charges. Isn’t it funny that he was never called a racist before in his life until he ran for president as a Republican? In fact, previously he was given awards by figures such as Jesse Jackson for his support for the black community.

However, liberals and Democrats were so whipped into hysteria by all of this, it got to the point where you couldn’t sit down in a coffee shop without overhearing how “Trump is like Hitler” within five minutes. It is just incredible how intelligent and otherwise reasonable people turn into the most vitriolic authoritarian bigots when the subject of Donald Trump comes up. There is never any substance to what they say, it is always ad hominem attacks.

Does it ever dawn on these people that there are two sides to every issue and some of us actually think that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are as bad as they think Trump is?

Of course not, because liberals think they are always right and anyone who disagrees with them is not only wrong, but uneducated and immoral. First, let’s take a look at a few of the groups on the left suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome…

The Teachers

Almost everyone on the left bought into the lie. In schools across the country, most teachers were very willing to verbally express the ill effects of their Trump Derangement Syndrome. Intimidated by these vocal teachers, middle schoolers were terrified to ever admit it if they supported Trump. Many teachers called anyone who supported Trump “crazy.” Mock votes were held in classrooms around the country and Hillary always won in a landslide. This is despite the fact that their parents were split about 50/50.

One local teacher even penned a letter to his students after the election, saying it was a “symbolic choice” between “the racist, misogynist, islamaphobe, homophobic, egocentric, who wants to deport people, assault women and build a wall… and the woman from the establishment. In other words, there was no choice. The choice was obvious. And we got it wrong.” All of this nonsense is despite the fact that the handbook of the School Committee clearly states that teachers are not supposed to use their positions to espouse a political position.

This is yet another reason Trump won – we are tired of paying exorbitant taxes to send our children to schools that have become left-wing indoctrination camps.

The Celebrities

Our elite celebrities from Hollywood and elsewhere – our nation’s best political philosophers don’t you know – got into the name-calling game. Here are some of their learned and erudite arguments as to why Hillary was the superior candidate…

George Clooney called Trump a “xenophobic fascist.”

Amy Shumer called him an “orange, sexual assaulting, fake-college-starting monster.”

JK Rowling said “Voldemort was nowhere near as bad.”

Not be outdone by that, Jennifer Lawrence said, “If Donald Trump becomes President that would be the end of the world.”

Cher compared him to Stalin and Hitler and said “I think he’s a fucking idiot.”

Takes one to know one I guess.

Robert DeNiro reached deep for his best and most persuasive arguments: “He’s so blatantly stupid. He’s a punk, he’s a dog, he’s a pig, he’s a con — a bullshit artist. A mutt who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, doesn’t do his homework, doesn’t care, thinks he’s gaming society, doesn’t pay his taxes. He’s an idiot.”

You get the drift. All of these “useful idiots” for left wing authoritarianism act this way because socialism does not affect them economically and they get to feel morally superior by taking the politically correct position as promulgated by their intellectual masters on the left. They are nothing more than brainwashed drones with egos so outsized they think we actually care what they say.

The Musicians

Then the musicians took center stage for the final push. Katy Perry held a concert. Lady Gaga wowed them wearing a Nazi costume. Hillary appeared with Jayzee and Beyonce. Madonna held a surprise really in Washington square.

Then we have the sad case of Bruce Springsteen, once a great songwriter and poet of the working class, now an out of touch, morally preening, pretentious blowhard. Bruce hauled out his guitar, washed his botoxed face, put on his $800 man scarf, and went out to sing for his supper in support of the most oppressive, boring, autocratic social system on earth… as well as the most boring, corrupt symbol of that big government establishment, Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile, the working men he used to sing odes to, got in their pickup trucks and went out the next morning and voted for Donald Trump.

Rock and Roll is dead and Springsteen killed it. At his recent tour in Australia, Springsteen told the crowd he was “ashamed to be an American.” We are ashamed that you are an American too Bruce.

The So-Called Comedians

I won’t even get into the so-called comedians. From Steven Colbert, to John Oliver, to Jon Stewart, to Samantha Bee, they were all colossally against Trump, colossally wrong and extremely boring. Nothing more than would-be Court Jesters for Queen Hillary.

You can look long and hard but you will not find one intelligent statement or original thought by the celebrity crowd about any policy positions of Trump…. Since they live a rarefied existence, ensconsed in their “cult of personality” echo chambers, they too are obsessed with personality and all things superficial.

While Hillary had pretty much the entire entertainment industry on her side…. Who did Trump have?

Pretty much only Jon Voigt, Chachie, and an ambivalent Clint Eastwood.

Yet Trump still won, didn’t he?

First they laughed at him, calling him a clown and a buffoon. When that didn’t work they had to create the big lie that he was racist and sexist.

However, this tactic has been used so many times by the left, most thinking Americans see right through it. Leftists have become the “boy who cried wolf” one too many times.

Do Not Fall For The Big Lie

Creating the “big lie” is a classic Leftist, Alinskyite tactic, and it was the heart of Hillary’s strategy.

First she tried to smear Trump as unqualified because of his politically incorrect statements and his mercurial temperament, but when that didn’t work she had to jump the shark and portray him as the second coming of Hitler. By extension, she also had to claim that all of his supporters were just racist, uneducated rubes with pitchforks. As she said….

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”

Despite the fact that she was supposed to be so intelligent, that will go down in history as one of the dumbest statements ever made by a political candidate. It’s one thing to attack your opponent, attacking his supporters is just plain stupid. But yes, that is how arrogant and out of touch the woman is.

Yet this was her only strategy — a transparent attempt to smear and disqualify Trump, because she was a terrible candidate who offered absolutely nothing to the good, productive, hard working people of America. She was also quite possibly the most unlikable, corrupt and undeserving individual that has ever run for the presidency.

Even so, she was a career politician, former first lady, experienced debater, and a former Secretary of State with the entire elite establishment on her side – yet, the blue collar billionaire with the reality TV show cleaned her clock.

When something so earth-shattering happens, it should warrant a period of introspection for those who were surprised and shocked by it. It should make those who are the least bit rational at least somewhat curious.

However, there is no evidence that most liberals and democrats suffer from that level of rationality or curiosity. In fact, as of this writing, the evidence is they are going to double down on it.

It is already obvious what the narrative on the left will be: the racist, bigoted Trump won, because all the “deplorables” who followed him blindly are just like him and this was a backlash against the compassionate, enlightened, inclusive, “progressives” on the left.

Nothing could be further from the truth, but we are already seeing that false narrative play out with outcomes that range from stupid and silly to downright dangerous.

On one hand you have the rise of the “safety pin” meme, in which the ever so enlightened and compassionate liberals signal their virtue to each other and their opposition to the evil Trump.

We’ve also seen a meltdown on college campuses across the country with classes and exams being cancelled, coloring books and playdough handed out, and therapy dogs brought in to comfort the troubled snowflakes who have seen such an affront to their insular world view.

Not all of the reactions have been so apparently benign.

The CEO of a company called PacketSled claimed he was going to assassinate Trump the day after the election. The CEO of HubGrub sent an email basically saying that any employee who supported Trump was not welcome at the company. Some college students are staging walk outs and demonstrating. In Maryland, one of these protests, in which they blocked traffic across a highway, resulted in the death of a man with a 4 year old daughter because an ambulance could not get to the hospital.

The weekend after the election, VP Elect Mike Pence was “lectured” from the stage by the cast of “Hamilton” in New York City. The American Music Awards featured bigoted attacks on Melania Trump and a song from the washed up punk rock group Green Day, comparing Trump to the KKK.

There is also no evidence that the Democrat party learned the lessons of this election. They are sending out tweets claiming Trump’s cabinet includes white supremacists, Islamophobes, and supporters of the KKK. (This is especially rich since it’s the Democrat party that founded the KKK). The always despicable Howard Dean called Trump’s Chief Strategist Steve Bannon a “Nazi.” The mask is off and the Left has become completely unhinged.

At a recent post-election recap DNC operative Jennifer Palmieiri accused Kellyanne Conway of winning by running a racist campaign and giving a platform for white supremacists, which is completely ridiculous.

I was hoping things would settle down after the Inauguration; however, they have only become worse with all of the protests, riots, and increasing violence from the left. It is very clear that the Left has become completely unhinged and will do everything they can to oppose every move Trump makes.

I hope they keep it up, because all they are doing by acting like such a-holes is guaranteeing that we won’t see a Democrat back in the White House for decades.

Just to reiterate, Trump is not a racist, a bigot, a misogynist, a xenophone, or an Islamophobe, and neither are his supporters. These charges are absurd and using this as an explanation for why he won is laughable and irrational.

Let’s take a look at what really happened….

How And Why Trump Won

So how did this really happen? How did he do it? What was the cause of Trump’s rise and what will it mean for our future?

Overall, this election was a rejection of the big government socialism that has been foisted on us for many years, especially under Barack Obama. In large part, it was a backlash against the politically correct culture and identity politics of the left, which has become nothing less than liberal fascism. It was also disgust with Obama’s serial appeasement of our enemies and failure to support our police and military.

Immigration was a big part of it, because Americans are fed up with the national security risks as well as the other problems inherent with illegalimmigration.

Finally, it was also a result of the complete train wreck that is Hillary Rodham Clinton vs. the many positive economic policies that Trump put forth.

More specifically, I believe there were eight key reasons for his success.

1) Rebellion against an overbearing government and the policies of Barack Obama.

Writing about the election of 1972 and discussing the unique American sense of life, Ayn Rand wrote the following:

That is exactly what this election was about for the vast majority of the people who voted for Trump. We are tired of the government growing ever larger no matter which political party is in office. We know the democrats are socialist, but we also realize that government spending grew dramatically under George W. Bush’s “compassionate” conservatism as well.

The turbo-statism of Barack Obama included massive tax increases, 24,000 new regulations, a government monstrosity called Obamacare shoved down our throats, a doubling of our national debt, anemic economic growth of a mere 2% per year, the lowest labor participation rate in over 40 years, a decline in real family income from $57,000 in 2007 to $53,700 in 2014, home ownership is at a 48 year low, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased from 26.5 million in 2007 to 44.5 million in 2016.the highest level of food stamps.

The result of this is the unproductive sector is draining the productive sector like a vampire.

People who are in the working and middle classes know this. They know they are losing the economic battle. Buying power is down. Wages are stagnant. Good jobs are harder to come by. Two full-time incomes are now a necessity for the vast majority of couples in this country and many people are having to work additional part-time jobs to make ends meet. Median family income has stalled since 2000 and has been far outpaced by huge increases in housing, health care, and college tuition.

Meanwhile, we see the debt exploding from $9 trillion to $20 trillion under Barack Obama and we know it will create grave problems for our children and grandchildren.

Yet the politicians keep on spending as if they are oblivious to the facts of reality and democrats and liberals simply go along with it as if there will never be any consequences.

Even worse, many of those on the left propose to jump the shark and go full socialist as we saw in the horrifying campaign of Bernie Sanders, who at least has the honesty to call himself a socialist. $20 trillion in debt? Bah, that’s nothing. Let’s see how much we can ramp that up by offering free college and free health care through a single payer system!

What’s more, we know we are paying for countless things we disagree with such as a bloated and rapacious government bureaucracy, lavish pensions for former government employees, aid to foreign countries who hate us, subsidies and bailouts for corporations, welfare for people who could work, payments to farmers so they don’t farm their land, and on and on.

People voted for Trump because they believe he will move in the direction of lifting this burden off of people who work for a living.

2) Rebellion against the politically correct culture and identity politics of the left.

Closely related to the overbearing government with its boot on our necks, are the overbearing people who support the Leviathan. The Left has completely dominated the culture because it has dominated the education system for the past 150 years. The vote for Trump was in large part a rejection of the left’s increasingly fascistic subversion over any attempt at dialogue through what is called political correctness.

People lament that the country is so divided. What do you expect when one side always wants to force their opinion on you through the power of the state and when you object, citing America’s heritage of liberty, freedom and capitalism, they call you names instead of debating ideas and policies?

The left has become so dominant in the culture, they feel they don’t even have to debate anymore. If you disagree with their politically correct party line, then you are not only wrong, you are immoral. That’s why they don’t even attempt to discuss ideas or policies anymore. You’re against raising the minimum wage? Racist! You don’t like Obamacare? You want people to die! Skeptical about the global warming theory? Science denier!

The left has always focused on controlling the dialogue by controlling the language.

Think about how Orwellian it is to call a fascist program like Obamacare – a government program that “doubles your premiums while cutting your coverage in half” as Bill Clinton said, and then has fines and penalties if you don’t comply — “the Affordable Care Act.”

The other main tactic they use is pressure group warfare. They divide people by class, gender, race, ethnicity, etc. and pit people against each other. The tactic they normally use of promising favors in exchange for votes from their favored pressure groups backfired this time though didn’t it?

What they are doing is balkanizing America into tribal groups. There is nothing progressive about this – it is entirely regressive. This is the Cultural Marxism that has been spread by progressives… just as economic Marxism pits people against each other based on class through the idea of haves and have nots, cultural Marxism does the same thing by claiming there are oppressors and oppressed, based on other factors such as race, gender, ethnicity, etc.

There is a crack in this nefarious strategy and the light is starting come through. Many minorities are beginning to understand they have been used by the Democrat party. They are realizing that handouts = dependency and they don’t want stagnation and violence in their inner cities – they need good jobs and that requires capitalism as well as law and order!

We are also tired of the liberal fascism on college campuses, where conservative and libertarian speakers are routinely shouted down by the forces of “inclusion” and “tolerance.” Ann Coulter has suffered through this for years, and recently Breitbart’s Milo Yannopoulis – a gay conservative who supports Trump — has had to cancel appearances due to security concerns. Identity politics is out of control on college campuses.

We are also tired of the Marxist revisionism of America’s history and the ignorant condemnation of our Founding Fathers. This is so out of hand there is now a humanities class at the University Colorado that teaches students the founding father were terrorists and that CEO’s should be in a “moral prison.”

A great many are also very tired of being lectured to by pampered celebrities and athletes who make millions of dollars off of us, know nothing about politics, but are arrogant enough to advertise their ignorance at every turn. People who make millions of dollars per year are not affected by higher taxes in any significant way. However, for the rest of us, higher taxes, higher health care costs, lower wages, and lack of jobs affect us dramatically. While these pampered millionaires don’t even notice a tax increase or higher health care costs, for those of us on Main Street it means postponing a new car, juggling the electric bill and the mortgage, not being able to pay for college, or it may mean your kids will never see Disney World.

The working and middle classes are getting squeezed in a vise due the stagnant economy and thetax, spend, regulate and borrow policies of the Democrats.

Keep it up social justice warriors and celebrities and all you’ll do is guarantee a second term for Trump.

This liberal fascism extended to the election itself. Branded as a hateful racist and bigot, the Left attempted to demonize Trump’s supporters as well. I always felt we needed to spot him two or three points for that alone… This type of liberal “shaming” also went on during the Brexit vote in the UK so people were afraid to admit they supported laving the EU.

I already mentioned how teachers intimidated and shamed students into not admitting they supported Trump. The same thing went on in the workplace and across America Trump signs were routinely stolen and vandalized to the point where many people were simply afraid to put them out because they didn’t want repercussions.

This madness went far beyond stealing lawn signs to actual violence against people for simply wearing a Trump hat or sporting a bumper sticker on their car. As covered in this article, there have been many documented incidents of physical violence against Trump supporters who did nothing to provoke it.

It’s interesting that CNN and the rest of the mainstream media have not reported on the above incidents, but instead keep claiming there is a rash of “hate crimes” sweeping the country post-election by Trump supporters. Upon closer examination of the incidents mentioned, none have actually been physical violence. Most have been just graffiti and signs, plus a couple of chants by kids and fringe groups that have not even been tied to Trump voters. It seems like there have actually been more hate crime hoaxes than hate crimes.

This is America?

It is time for political correctness and identity politics to go because it is a cancer in a country founded on the principles of individual liberty and the motto “E Pluribus Unum.”

3) Frustration with a stagnant, slow-growth economy and lack of good paying jobs.

Despite his lack of character, Bill Clinton knew something that Hillary did not – in order to get people to vote for you they have to think you care about them.

That’s why he would always tell them “I feel your pain.” His wife has none of that ability to connect with people.

To his credit, Donald Trump does. That’s why he was known as the “blue collar billionaire” even before he ran for office. I was pleasantly surprised as the campaign evolved to see him actually going into the inner cities as well as the hard hit areas of the south and rust belt to talk to people, listen to them, and attempt to come up with solutions.

Although we need to defend free trade on principle and I was very disappointed at some of his anti-trade, protectionist rhetoric, it is understandable in terms of political strategy. It’s one thing to assert that free trade is the best economic policy and the government has no business interfering in economic exchange or trying to prevent U. S. companies who want to move plants overseas; however, it’s another thing entirely to just say “that’s the way it is” to a 50-year-old woman in Ohio who can’t pay her mortgage and is watching her husband slip away into depression because he lost his job at the auto plant because it was moved to Mexico.

As someone running for office, you are not going to pull out copies of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman and attempt to educate that woman about economic theory and explain to her how we are all better off in the long run if the government does nothing. You are going to try to come up with a solution.

Now, we can argue that Trump’s protectionist solution of tariffs is not the way to go, which is the side I am on. But we need to understand that what resonated with hard hit working and middle class people around the country was that he cared and would attempt to do something about creating more jobs and keeping American companies and their money in the U. S.

What the government can and should do is simply get out of the way and let capitalism work. To his credit, Trump is talking about cutting the corporate tax rate to 15% from its current 40% (this highest in the industrialized world). Compare that with Ireland’s 12.5%. That’s the reason their economy is growing at 3x the rate of ours. That’s a good way to use the carrot of tax cuts. A better rate would be zero; however, economist Larry Kudlow predicts that if Trump’s corporate tax plan becomes law, you’ll see “a tremendous movement of capital and labor back to the United States.”

Unfortunately, Trump is also taking about doing things like putting tariffs on companies that move operations outside of the U. S. and want to sell their goods in the U. S. That would be a disaster – protectionist policies increase the costs and risks of doing business — and I am hoping that was political posturing as part of his strategy. We should also be clear that the government has no right to tell a company they cannot make products in other countries or even outsource jobs to other countries, such as the IT outsourcing that goes to India. We should also keep in mind this is not a policy the president could enact by decree and there are plenty of free traders in Congress he would likely put the brakes on such a policy.

As I was writing this, it was announced that Carrier has now decided to keep over 1,000 jobs in Indiana that were originally going to be lost to a new plant in Mexico. Trump apparently spoke with the parent company United Technologies and persuaded them to stay based on tax incentives and the new business-friendly environment he will create in the US. This is great news and exactly the kind of thing we hope will happen – companies stay here because it makes the most sense for them economically. We do have to watch this though because there is a fine line between persuasion and coercion.

Another positive dialogue in the jobs discussion is the idea of finally bringing capitalism to inner cities and breaking the 60-year stranglehold that Democrats have had there which has resulted in nothing but poverty and generational dependency. Trump’s chief strategist, Steven Bannon, has said they plan to bring capitalism to the inner cities and has also been an advocate of school choice, which is designed to help students stuck in failing schools get the education they need to break that cycle.

In short, people voted for Trump because they want better jobs and economic growth.

4) Trump Was Willing To Fight Dirty

Much has been made of the incredible animosity, name-calling, vulgarity, and circus-like atmosphere of the 2016 campaign, but it is really not that unusual in American politics. When you have two sharply divided parties and you are playing for all the marbles, this is what happens. Consider a couple of historical examples.

The Election of 1800 was a rematch of the previous election Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, in which Adams won a narrow victory in both the popular vote and the Electoral College. Both men were determined to win at all costs, and they sent out surrogates to attack the other. Jefferson secretly hired the famed pamphleteer James Callendar, who had previously damaged the reputation of Alexander Hamilton, to portray Adams and the Federalist party as a friend to British royalty and Adams as being bent on starting a war with France in order to further an alliance with King George. As part of his attack, Callender described Adams as a “hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”

Ouch.

Adams’ son John Quincy was also involved in a pretty nasty election with Andrew Jackson. Adams and his surrogates said Jackson had the personality of a dictator, was too uneducated to be president (they claimed he spelled Europe ‘Urope’), and hurled all sorts of terrible insults at his wife, Rachel. Rachel had been in an abusive marriage with a man who finally divorced her, but divorce was still quite the scandal at the time. The Federalists called her a “dirty black wench”, a “convicted adulteress” and said she was prone to “open and notorious lewdness”. On their end, Jackson’s people said that Adams had sold his wife’s maid as a concubine to the czar of Russia. Jackson won that one pretty handily.

In modern times, one of the lowest was the “Daisy” ad that Lyndon Johnson ran against Barry Goldwater. Many consider it the most effective negative ad in modern politics—where Johnson essentially said that electing Barry Goldwater would bring on nuclear destruction, killing our nation’s children. If you’ve never seen it you should check it out here.

In recent years, what we have typically seen is this: Democrats are willing to fight dirty and “go low,” while republicans want to stay “above the fray” and play by the Marquis de Queensbury rules. The typical strategy is always to paint Republicans as greedy, money-grubbing rich guys that want to reward the rich, steal from the poor, pollute the air and water, take away your social security and medicare and throw granny off a cliff (which was an actual campaign ad in the 2008 election).

Candidate Barack Obama famously said “when they bring a knife we bring a gun” and told his supporters to “get in the faces” of their friends and neighbors and family.

We know all this. Although all of the Wikileaks emails and Project Veritas [link] video shined the light on these tactics, none of it was surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to recent elections. We all remember how McCain and Romney would not go after Obama on key hot button issues such as the Benghazi scandal when push came to shove. [others]

In short, Republican candidates have been wimps.

Enter Donald Trump. Not only was he willing to get in the mud, he brought name-calling, mud-slinging and personal attacks to a whole new level, even saying he would appoint a special prosecutor to put his opponent in jail.

Unfortunately, that is what it takes to beat the Democrats these days. Hillary of course gave as good as she got, continually lying about him, saying he lives in an “alternative universe,” and continually twisting his words and then hammering Trump on his comments about women and other groups.

During the primary campaign, I knew it would be either Trump or Cruz and I was personally leaning toward Cruz. I thought he was much more principled, understood and respected the Constitution, and would be far better at laying out a coherent vision as well as specific policies. As an experienced debater, I also thought he would do much better against Hillary Clinton in the debates.

Others on the Republican side thought it had to be Trump, because he was an outsider who would truly shake up the establishment and would engage in the street fighting necessary to beat the Clintons. Despite all of the cringe-worth things Trump said and his propensity to shoot himself in the foot, I think those in the latter camp turned out to be correct. One person put it very succintly and I think wisely when she told me simply, “if the Republicans want to win this time, they need a candidate with balls.”

Trump slashed and burned his way to the Republican nomination; however, in addition to fighting dirty against Hillary he also offered substantial positive policies and vision while she had none of the latter.

5) We are tired of being sold out by the elite establishment.

The rise of such an iconoclastic candidate as Donald Trump cannot be fully explained by a rejection of the current President’s agenda. If it were just that, Republicans would have nominated a safer “establishment” Republican like Marcio Rubio or Jeb Bush. But they did not even come close. This is because the dissatisfaction goes far beyond just the one party and encompasses politicians in general as well as the dominant elite establishment in the media, entertainment, and academia.

Trump accurately read the mood of the country. He knew people were tired of being sold out by politicians on both sides of the aisle. The Democrats have gone completely off the deep end and now have candidates such as Bernie Sanders who are outright socialists coming close to winning the nomination.

As for the Republicans, although they claim to be the party of traditional American values and our founding principles, such as individual liberty, capitalism, and limited government, they have not even come close to upholding those ideals (at least since Ronald Reagan).

No matter which party holds office, the federal government grows and grows… the national debt grows and grows… the regulations increase… lobbyists and political favors increase…. and our freedom and prosperity shrinks along with the prospects for our children to live better lives.

Despite having control of Congress in his first term, George W. Bush spent far more than Bill Clinton and also raised taxes. Bush’s compassionate conservatism was really no different in principle than the socialism of the left – the only thing that changed was who the money that was plundered from taxpayers went to.

We have had enough of politicians who speak out of both sides of their mouths while betraying all of our most cherished principles.

Will Trump be any better? We don’t really know, but for now Donald Trump represents a big middle finger to all of that and we are willing to give an outsider a chance to drain the swamp.

It is also very interesting to see that Trump easily won the votes of the blue collar, working class around the country, but especially in the hardest hit states economically.

Democrats were never really “for” the working class, but they used to control their votes by pandering to big labor and unions. However, people are waking up to the fact that what is really needed are policies that are business friendly and will result in job creation and economic growth.

The establishment media has been completely shameful in their biased attacks and it is definitely going to be a long four years for them, because Trump is not going to roll over for them as other Republicans have done.

6) National Security, Immigration, and Response To The Refugee Crisis

It’s one thing to be overwhelmed by an unexpected invasion, it’s quite another to invite your invaders in. This was the common sense idea that prompted Trump’s bold call for a ban on Muslim immigration, which then evolved into a policy of “extreme vetting,” which may or may not include a pause in immigration from certain countries.

Despite the rationality of at least considering such a policy, the idea was met with a firestorm of criticism from both sides of the aisle. We kept hearing this was bigoted or racist and politicians like President Obama kept declaring “that’s not who we are.”

Really? Is “who we are,” a bunch of suicidal fools who would willingly bring people into this country, knowing that a certain percentage of them are hostile to our values and want to kill American men, women and children indiscriminately?

To do something like that out of a mistaken notion of duty, tolerance, or diversity is the height of self-sacrificial altruism and self-immolation.

On the campaign trail, Trump frequently recited the lyrics of “The Snake,” by Al Wilson, which is a take off on the fable of the farmer and the viper. The closing lines are…

“I saved you, ” cried the woman
“And you’ve bitten me, but why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die”
“Oh shut up, silly woman, ” said the reptile with a grin
“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in

Those of us paying attention know there have been 29,000 Islamic terror attacks since 9/11. We see what’s going on Europe due to the invasion of Muslim immigrants. We have seen all the incidents here from Boston to Garland to San Bernardino to Orlando. In almost all cases the government’s intelligence agencies let us down because they were hamstrung by suicidal political correctness.

We also know the elites, who will never be affected by these things, make the decisions — and they have been the wrong decisions.

Let’s take the case of Germany…

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan related a story of a conversation with an acquaintance of Angela Merkel. She said the acquaintance offered the following when asked how Ms. Merkel could possibly be so foolish as to let in some 1 million Muslim refugees…

As the daughter of a Lutheran minister, someone who grew up in East Germany, Ms. Merkel would have natural sympathy for those who feel marginalized and displaced. Moreover she is attempting to provide a kind of counter-statement, in the 21st century, to Germany’s great sin of the 20th. The historical stain of Nazism, the murder and abuse of the minority, will be followed by the moral triumph of open arms toward the dispossessed. That’s what’s driving it, said the acquaintance.

So out of a misguided sense of altruism, Ms. Merkel is willing to put the safety and security of the German people at risk. Noonan then makes a great point:

It was as good an explanation as I’d heard. But there was a fundamental problem with the decision that you can see rippling now throughout the West. Ms. Merkel had put the entire burden of a huge cultural change not on herself and those like her but on regular people who live closer to the edge, who do not have the resources to meet the burden, who have no particular protection or money or connections. Ms. Merkel, her cabinet and government, the media and cultural apparatus that lauded her decision were not in the least affected by it and likely never would be.

Nothing in their lives will get worse. The challenge of integrating different cultures, negotiating daily tensions, dealing with crime and extremism and fearfulness on the street—that was put on those with comparatively little, whom I’ve called the unprotected. They were left to struggle, not gradually and over the years but suddenly and in an air of ongoing crisis that shows no signs of ending—because nobody cares about them enough to stop it.

The powerful show no particular sign of worrying about any of this. When the working and middle class pushed back in shocked indignation, the people on top called them “xenophobic,” “narrow-minded,” “racist.” The detached, who made the decisions and bore none of the costs, got to be called “humanist,” “compassionate,” and “hero of human rights.”

This is exactly what would have happened under Hillary Clinton. Once again, it is the elites making decisions that are destructive for us so they can be viewed as “inclusive” and “compassionate,” while never having to suffer the consequences of their decisions themselves. This is the same thing that happens in matters of economic policy.

We also know the truth about Obama’s disastrous Iran deal, which has not stopped Iran’s support for terror and has given them the money they will need to develop a nuclear bomb in the future. Trump has promised to do something about that as well.

Those who don’t think “extreme vetting” is critically necessary, simply have not been following what’s going on in Europe and/or have their heads in the sand. Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and others have done a phenomenal job shining a light on the danger of Islam since 9/11/01.

Painful truths are difficult but we can’t wish monsters away. We do need to heed the lesson of the farmer and the viper.

If Trump’s proposal was in place the attack at Ohio State University would not have happened. Do we really want to bring people into this country who will attack our children on college campuses with machetes?

As far as immigration in general, Trump’s bold stand has been something we have needed for a long time. In an ideal world it would be great to have an open border society. However, we are not in an ideal world. We live in a country that is $20 trillion in debt — we cannot afford to pay for illegal immigrants that come here and live off the American taxpayer. Even more importantly, in the age of jihad, immigration is now a national security issue and needs to be taken very seriously.

Despite the recent hysteria from the left due to Trump’s recent pause on immigration from terrorist hotbeds, that is something that should have been done a long time ago so we can prevent the next Boston Marathon bombing or slaughters like the ones in San Bernardino and Orlando. We have no obligation to take any immigrant in, let alone those from a group that has many adherents committed to a violent ideology like militant Islam.

Another related issue is foreign policy in general. Throughout the last eight years, Obama, Clinton, and Kerry have acted like the gang who couldn’t shoot straight all across the Middle East. They made bad decision after bad decision in relation to Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Iran. Obama pulled our troops out of Iraq and created the vacuum that allowed the rise of Isis. He drew a line in the sand and then promptly caved on it in Syria which led to the refugee crisis. Hillary bragged about killing Qadaffi in Lybia which gave us Benghazi and a failed state. They then cut a deal with Iran which will enable them to eventually create nuclear weapons and then sent over a billion US dollars to them wrapped in a bow.

And now the American people are asked to take in potentially dangerous “refugees” from Syria and these other failed states? Sorry, but most of us do not believe in paying for the sins of our foolish “leaders.”

7) Lack of respect for the most honorable men and women in the country

Another aspect of this revolt has been disgust at the way in which the most honorable men and women in our country have been smeared and disparaged by false narratives from the Left. The war on our police is the most egregious.

The entire movement of Black Lives Matter is based on a lie – i.e., that there is systemic racism among the nation’s law enforcement and because of that, blacks are being singled out for violence. The Black Lives Matter movement started after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. The facts of the incident are much different than the myth however. In that case, the police officer was exonerated from any wrongdoing. The “hands up don’t shoot” meme that started after that was a complete deception. This has been true in most such cases and the prosecution of the police officers in multiple highly publicized cases has collapsed.

The real war is the one on police. In her new book “The War On Cops,” Heather MacDonald cites several key statistics that put the lie to the false narrative of BLM and others, including

Cops killed nearly twice as many whites as blacks in 2015…

More whites and Hispanics die from police homicides than blacks.

Black and Hispanic police officers are more likely to fire a gun at blacks than white officers.

Blacks are more likely to kill cops than be killed by cops.

However, because of this lie, we have had many police officers murdered who were specifically targeted based on the irresponsible rhetoric of those pushing this false narrative.

This phenomenon was explained very succinctly at the website of the pro-Police organization, Blue Lives Matter…

The media catered to movements such as Black Lives Matter, whose goal was the vilification of law enforcement. Criminals who rioted and victimized innocent citizens were further given legitimacy by the media as “protesters.” America watched as criminals destroyed property, and assaulted and murdered innocent people, and they labeled these criminals as victims. Personal responsibility for one’s actions went away, replaced by accusations of racism and an unjust government. It seemed that almost every media organization was spreading the absurd message that people were being shot by law enforcement simply because of the color of their skin. Our political leaders pandered to these criminals and helped spread this false narrative, with no thought of the consequences.

President Obama and Hillary Clinton have done nothing to stand up for the Police and put a stop to this. In fact, they have contributed to it with their irresponsible rhetoric.

We have also seen a complete lack of respect for the military by this President. His decisions have been disastrous, from his foreign policy, to his decision to swap 5 jihadis for the traitor Bo Bergdahl, to the constricting rules of engagement that tie our military’s hands, to his cutting of both the size and the firepower of the armed forces. Finally, the treatment of our Veterans after 8 years of Barack Obama has been atrocious.

Trump has been far more supportive of the police and military than any Democrat and he has also gone out of his way to constantly advocate for Veterans and promise that it will be a priority of his presidency.

8) The Clintons

There’s not too much more to say here, because it’s all so obvious to anyone except brainwashed Democrats. Even if we forget about her left-wing socialist policies, Hillary Clinton was quite possibly the most corrupt and undeserving person ever to run for the presidency. From the Whitewater scandal to Bill’s assaults on Juanita Broderick and countless other women… to Monica Lewinsky and Bill’s shameless lying to the American Public… to the corrupt Clinton Foundaton…. to the Russian Uranium deal… to the email server scandal… to the Benghazi scandal…. it’s all migraine-inducing and I’ve already covered it extensively in this article:

In short, putting the Clintons back in the White House was unthinkable to those of us who have paid attention to them for the past 3 decades. It was way past time for them to go.

9) Affirmative Vote From Trump’s Pro Growth, Pro-American Policies

So there were plenty of reasons to vote against Hillary. At first, many people were settling for that because candidate Trump had a lot of issues of his own and did not seem to offer a principled approach to policy. However, that did change over the course of the campaign. What started as a slash and burn campaign in the primary did evolve into something far more positive by the end. This was summed up in his speech at Gettysburg where he unveiled his Contract for American Voter.

Personally, I think in terms of character, Trump is a choir boy compared to both of the Clintons. However, even those who disagree would have to concede it was at least a draw if they are being the least bit objective. Be that as it may, in more than 60% of the states in this country, Americans saw through the big lie and leftist shaming and voted on issues that affected their lives, such as:

Name the enemy as Islamic terrorism and coming up with a plan for defeating Isis

Improving National Security and curbing illegal immigration

There is always the danger that Trump’s administration will steer too far in the direction of economic and political nationalism and we should be vigilant about that. However, to the extent that his policies support individual rights and more economic freedom we should applaud them. If he does in fact try to implement tariffs and other penalties that are anti free trade, those policies should be opposed. We should also be very skeptical of proposals like the federal infrastructure project, which sounds a little too much like Obama’s “shovel ready” jobs.

In summary, Trump’s policies overall are aimed at putting more money back in the pockets of working Americans, making the country stronger, and protecting us from terrorists and criminals. Why are these simple ideas so anathema to the Left and the Democrat party? The Left is so blinded by their ideology that they seem to be hell bent of committing national suicide.

To those on the left, government has become a religion and they cannot stand the fact that there is a vulgar “Infidel” in the White House. They will do everything they can to destroy his agenda. We cannot let that happen and need to stay on the offensive. Trump is far from perfect; however, we had a binary choice in this election and overall I believe he will be far superior to the alternative. At minimum, his administration will at least attempt stop the socialism and appeasement of his predecessor. Let’s hope the Republicans in Congress have the intestinal fortitude to stand with him.

In order to wage this fight successfully, we need to be very clear as to why Mr. Trump was elected and what his mandate is. We need to vocally support it and not be cowed by ignorant and obnoxious leftists, because it has become obvious since the inauguration that the Left is going to wage an all out war against Trump and his policies. As outlined in this article by John Hawkins at Townhall.com, Trump winning the Presidency has clearly caused the left to lose its collective mind. Rational Democrats need to really ask themselves if they want to be on the side of an increasingly unhinged an violent Left who are opposing an essentially pro-American agenda.

Now James Comey has come out and said they have investigated 650,000 emails in the last 8 days and Hillary’s in the clear on that one, “nothing to see here.” The political establishment truly thinks the American people are stupid.

Trump has done what no outsider in politics has ever done. He’s beaten the politicians at their own game by winning the Republican primary.

He then had to fight not only the Clinton Machine and the DNC, with their reptilian dirty tricks squads, he has also had to fight the entire mainstream media… a corrupt media that has been 100% in the tank for Hillary and has spent 24 hours a day smearing Trump and running relentlessly negative coverage of anything they think will make him look bad (while ignoring the avalanche of negative news about Clinton).

He has even had to fight the entire Republican establishment of cowards and traitors, as well as the pretentious and arrogant intellectuals and pundits on the right (including many Libertarians and Objectivists). Politics is not philosophy NeverTrumpers, this is real life with real consequences. If we become the subjects of Queen Hillary, it will be largely your doing and you may never see a Republican in the White House again.

At this stage of the game, the choice could not be clearer. On one side, you have an imperfect but “can do” businessman who truly loves and cares about this country. He does not need to be doing this. He has spent his life building, working, producing, employing people and raising a great family. He is a flawed but essentially good man. Just take a look at his children and see how much they love and respect the man if you doubt that. To see how much he cares about the country, all you have to do is look at the indefatigable way he has campaigned with incredible energy even in the face of the tremendous onslaught and smears he has faced from all sides. Yesterday he did campaign stops at 7 states in one day. In terms of policy, he has at least 80% of it right on the big picture issues, such as tax cuts, energy policy, preventing illegal immigration, choice in education, and eliminating terrorist threats. The overall theme is to make the country safer, stronger and more prosperous. He will surround himself with the right advisers in the most critical policy areas.

On the other side, you have the most corrupt individual ever to seek the office of the presidency. She has nothing to offer us except bigger and more oppressive government at the expense of our freedom, liberty, prosperity and security. She has proven to be a pathological liar who will say anything to get elected, can easily be bought off by our enemies, and has no clue about foreign policy or how to combat the jihad. In fact, she will strengthen and embolden the jihad and even invite the terrorists into our midst by increasing Muslim refugee programs. After four years of suffering the stagnation, massive debt, destruction of our healthcare system, and growing jihad threat due to the current socialist fool in the White House, we simply cannot afford four more years of it. Electing Hillary Clinton will be the final nail in our coffin. If she does get elected, future generations will look back on this election and say this was the point in time when the left wing brainwashing of 51% of the American people reached its apex. They will marvel that the majority of the people in our once-free country were willing to elect someone so corrupt — and then pay for the rope that will hang them, and even place it around the necks of themselves, their children and their grandchildren.

We cannot let that happen.

You can call Trump’s campaign slogan corny if you want, but he is as sincere in his desire to “Make America Great Again” as Hillary is in her desire to destroy what’s left of that greatness. He is a threat to the entire corrupt establishment, which is why he has been vilified to such a degree.

Don’t fall for it, watch the brief video below and then vote Trump on Tuesday.

There are almost too many Hillary scandals to keep up with and the avalanche of disclosures via Wikileaks is too much for most mere mortals to sort through. Fortunately, someone has done it for us at the following site:

Maybe there is a god. It looks like Hillary Clinton may finally get the justice she deserves for 30 years of lying, cheating and corruption.

There were three very bad revelations this week that could very well torpedo Hillary and Bill’s chances to get their slimy presence back into the White House.

Weinergate. Believe it or not, the FBI has just re-opened the criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for government business. Apparently, what prompted this is information they gleaned from the devices of Huma Abedin and her husband Anthony Weiner. Huma is Hillary’s closest confidante (who also happens to have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, has published anti-American articles, and who’s mother edited a pro-Islamist magazine). Huma’s husband, the infamous Anthony Weiner, is the disgusting pervert who has been caught sending pictures of his anatomy electronically multiple times, the latest of which involved a 15-year old girl. The speculation is that emails from Huma wound up on the computer used by Weiner. No security problem there right? For the FBI to re-open the investigation at this juncture, they must have something very serious. James Comey has been rightly criticized for not indicting Hillary to begin with, despite the mountain of evidence showing she broke the law, so whatever prompted this has to be serious enough that it forced his hand. It’s very likely that he fears the rank and file in the FBI (who were furious over his previous decision) will revolt and disclose it anyway. It could be there is evidence that Abedin violated the law regarding classified material, or it could even be more serious, given her and her family’s many ties to anti-American Islamist groups. Whatever it is, this is a bombshell that makes Mrs. Clinton the first presidential candidate in history to go into an election under criminal investigation.

The Obamacare Death Spiral Continues. This week the government announce that Obamacare rates will rise 25% in 2017. If they are saying 25% you know it will be far higher. It’s worth remembering that Obama and the Democrats forced this disaster through Congress even though the majority of Americans opposed it. As part of his pitch, Obama dishonestly claimed that this massive government takeover would somehow lower health care costs by $2500 per family. Remember this?

Many unthinking Americans went along with the propaganda.Despite Obama’s promises, the actual results of this government interference are that the average family has already seen premium increases of over $4,000 per year along with higher deductibles and reduced coverage. And of course, as a bonus we also get to pay more taxes in order to subsidize the millions of people who signed up for Obamacare but can’t afford to pay the full premiums. This is another trillion dollars in taxes so far and that will keep rising.

“Bill Clinton Inc” and the corruption of Hillary’s State Department revealed in depth. The latest batch of Wikileaks emails involving Bill Clinton’s aide Doug Band provide evidence of the incredible nexus of corruption that was Hillary, Bill, The State Department, and the Clinton Foundation.There is far too much to detail here, but be sure to check out this article by Andrew McCarthy at National Review. He lays it all bare and shows it for what it is: the epitome of pull peddling, also know as raw political bribery and corruption.

Mrs. Clinton appears to have converted the office of secretary of state into a racketeering enterprise. This would be a violation of the RICO law — the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1971 (codified in the U.S. penal code at sections 1961 et seq.).

Hillary and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, operated the Clinton Foundation. Ostensibly a charity, the foundation was a de facto fraud scheme to monetize Hillary’s power as secretary of state (among other aspects of the Clintons’ political influence). The scheme involved (a) the exchange of political favors, access, and influence for millions of dollars in donations; (b) the circumvention of campaign-finance laws that prohibit political donations by foreign sources; (c) a vehicle for Mrs. Clinton to shield her State Department e-mail communications from public and congressional scrutiny while she and her husband exploited the fundraising potential of her position; and (d) a means for Clinton insiders to receive private-sector compensation and explore lucrative employment opportunities while drawing taxpayer-funded government salaries.

While the foundation did perform some charitable work, this camouflaged the fact that contributions were substantially diverted to pay lavish salaries and underwrite luxury travel for Clinton insiders. Contributions skyrocketed to $126 million in 2009, the year Mrs. Clinton arrived at Foggy Bottom. Breathtaking sums were “donated” by high-rollers and foreign governments that had crucial business before the State Department. Along with those staggering donations came a spike in speaking opportunities and fees for Bill Clinton. Of course, disproportionate payments and gifts to a spouse are common ways of bribing public officials — which is why, for example, high-ranking government officeholders must reveal their spouses’ income and other asset information on their financial-disclosure forms.

We’ll start with the ugly. Yes, Trump has a big mouth and has said a lot of mean things about a lot of people. He was also caught in a private conversation saying very inappropriate things about his “way” with women. Right on cue, the Clinton machine trots out a bevy of accusers who come out of the woodwork three weeks before the election. Are the accusations true or not? Who knows and really who cares? Compared to all of the actual crimes and lies of the Clintons, the words of Trump and the allegations against him are child’s play.

Now the bad. A few of his proposed policies are bad. He clearly does not understand economics and his proposed protectionist policies (with threats of tariffs) will be about as effective as Herbert Hoover’s were just prior to the depression. He clearly has few principled positions. He does not really understand the Constitution and that its purpose is to limit and restrain government. He has said a lot of just plain dumb and contradictory things about a lot of policy issues. My hope here is that he will surround himself with the right economic and national security advisers and from all appearances he is doing that.

Now the good. The first thing to understand is that Trump does not need this. He had a great life, great business, great family, and could have easily spent his sunset years flying around on his jet with Melania and golfing at his luxury resorts. I do believe that, like many millions of other Americans, he is truly concerned about the direction of this country and what it means for our future and that’s why he threw his hat in the ring. That alone is reason enough to vote for him over a woman who desperately needs this — Mrs. Clinton has been scheming to gain this as a pinnacle of power her entire adult life.

Trump has also been the only Republican in recent memory to fight. Romney, McCain and all the rest of the milquetoasts rolled over while the Democrats engaged in the most loathsome smear campaigns with their partners in the media. To his credit, Trump has also pushed back on hard on political correctness and challenged the entire establishment.

Most importantly, despite all of the noise and the pathetic depths this election has sunk to, there are serious differences in policy. Let’s put the character issues aside for a moment and think about the long-term consequences of policies that will actually matter.

Here are some of the most important things that are being buried under all the piles of B. S.:

The Economy. Trump wants to cut the corporate income tax from 35 percent to 15 percent (on average) across all businesses. This is great news. It will boost jobs, promote economic growth, and give corporations a powerful incentive to stay in the U.S. or repatriate. He has also promised to roll back some of the 24,000+ regulations Obama has saddled us with. Hillary, on the other hand, makes vague promises from her Marxist playbook, such as “equal pay,” “fairness,” “minimum wage,” and “make the rich pay their fair share.” She never shows how these policies actually produce more jobs or more economic growth. That’s because they don’t. All she will do is accelerate the downward pull and pressure group warfare of the welfare state.

The Supreme Court. The next appointments will change the Supreme court for forty years. If Hillary wins, both the first and second amendments will be in jeopardy — these are most important amendments of a free country. Clinton has shown she is an enemy of free expression and has said many times she wants to overturn the “Citizens United” decision, which simply upholds the right to free speech in matters of politics. Trump has named possible appointees who will uphold the U.S. Constitution. In the second debate, Clinton listed several race, gender, and age related social goals for her new Court. She did not mention the Constitution because she couldn’t care less about the Constitution. Trump may not either, but at least there are many on his side that do.

Foreign Policy. Trump has not been very clear as to his foreign policy; however, he does state his approach would be “America first.” Historically, and this goes back to the group that was skeptical of our entry into World War II, “America First” has meant that America’s love for its ideals of freedom, individual rights, and the democratic process, does not mean that we have to spread them all over the world using the military. My sense is that Trump would only focus on actual threats and eradicate them forcefully. He has hinted at an approach that would seek cooperation with friendly and not-so-friendly allies like Russia. Hillary has said she would oppose Russian power in Syria in order to support “democratic forces” fighting the regime. Other than that, it is pretty clear she will continue Obama’s policies of appeasement, and she can barely utter the words “radical Islamic terrorism.” Her record as Secretary of State was disastrous and much of the world is on fire because of it. By any objective measure, the Obama-Clinton foreign policy of the past eight years has been an epic failure.

Healthcare. Trump wants to repeal Obamacare, encourage competition among health insurance companies, and create health care savings plans and tax exemptions for medical expenses. In other words, he would be moving toward free markets and the private sector, which is the right direction. Hillary wants to try to duct tape Obamacare (which is already in a death spiral as we speak), but everyone knows that her real dream is “single payer,” which is a complete government run, Soviet-style healthcare system. Do you really want the government “running” the healthcare industry?

Energy and the Environment. Trump understands we are becoming energy independent thanks to technology such as fracking and natural gas storage. Because of these advances, we have now become the #1 energy producer in the world for the first time in decades. This means we can potentially be free of dependence on oil from the Middle East. Trump questions the man-made global warming dogma, and says there is no evidence it presents a long-term threat. The global warming hypothesis is full of holes and it certainly should not justify the elimination of our robust fossil fuel economy, dramatically higher energy prices, and making us dependent on the Middle East. Hillary, on the other hand, laughably believes “global warming and climate change” are the single greatest crisis facing America. Mrs. Clinton (or is it Mrs. Quixote) wants to dismantle America’s fossil fuel energy infrastructure and, as we learned in some recent Wikileaks emails, “dreams” of a hemisphere comprised of windmills, solar panels and “open borders.” That is sheer madness because those “clean energy” solutions have never turned a profit, and have proven to be utterly incapable of powering an advanced industrial civilization. She has been openly hostile to coal producers and workers. And an “open borders” policy in an age of terror would pose a grave threat to America.

National and Domestic Security. Trump has stated he will work to restore law and order. He has promised to rebuild the military. He has been on the right side in the war on our cops, a war which has been exacerbated by the false narratives spun by the likes of President Obama and the rest of the left. There is a reason why the most honorable men in the country support Trump over Clinton. Mrs. Clinton has rushed to judgment before the facts are in regarding cases such as the shooting in Tulsa, OK, has perpetrated the myth of institutional racism among law enforcement, and has even gone so far as to claim that all Americans are racist in the second debate (which she called “implicit bias”). Mrs. Clinton will do virtually nothing about illegal immigration and has incredibly promised to increase the Syrian refugee influx into our country by 550%, while admitting that there is really no way to vet them. In doing so, it appears she would like us to suffer the same fate as Europe, which is in crisis due to a deadly combination of migrants, terrorism, and crippling debt.

Illegal Immigration. There are now around 12 million illegal aliens in the United States. By definition, they came here by violating our law. Since they are illegal, they cannot legally work within the system, cannot pay taxes, cannot pay social security, etc. However, they do enjoy many benefits supported by taxpayers at tremendous cost (and risk). Consider what John Quincy Adams said about immigration and think about it within the context of today’s welfare state:

“But there is one principle which pervades all the institutions of this country, and which must always operate as an obstacle to the granting of favors to new comers.This is a land, not of privileges, but of equal rights. Privileges are granted by European sovereigns to particular classes of individuals, for purposes of general policy; but the general impression here is that privileges granted to one denomination of people, can very seldom be discriminated from erosions of the rights of others.”

Trump says that in a country founded on equal application of the law, the current situation is simply not fair. He says those who are illegal need to go through the process (which we have) to become legal. He also says that new illegals, which are pouring into the country at unprecedented rates (many of whom are criminals and some of whom are potential terrorists), must be stopped. Oh, and he wants to build a wall in case you haven’t heard. Hillary says expecting people to obey our immigration laws is is racism, bigotry, cruelness, and just plain “deplorable.” Her solution to illegal immigrants is to simply wave her wand and declare them legal. Won’t that provide an incentive for millions more to come in the same way? How is that possibly fair to those who are waiting in line to come in legally?

Education. Trump wants to make education a state and local matter. Altough the Federal government should not be involved to begin with, at least he wants to direct funds from the federal government toward “schools of choice,” charter schools, and other alternatives to the failing public education monopoly. Clinton, because she’s beholden to the NEA and the unions, wants to permit no competition within the public education system. She’ll just keep throwing more and more money at the failing model. That’s the Democrats’ way and the NEA loves it.

These are pretty stark policy differences. These are the policies that will effect our lives, our security, our prosperity and our country. And considering the importance of the Supreme Court, these are the policies that will set the direction of the country for decades and effect the lives of our children and grandchildren.

The sordid private lives and sex lives of the candidates don’t matter one iota in comparison with the huge issues above. This is why I believe Trump is clearly deserving of our votes.

There are a couple of ways to look at it in context. The first is this: voting for Trump is like playing Russian Roulette — we don’t really know what we’re getting and it could end in disaster. But voting for Hillary is like playing Russian Roulette with a gun that’s fully loaded.

Another way to look at it is this: yes, Trump is a train wreck as a politician; however, I do think he will act as a giant monkey wrench in the evil establishment machine and slow down our descent into socialist oblivion combined with a rising jihad. He will at least buy us some time while we try to get better candidates for high office. Obama’s core policies of socialism for Americans and appeasement for our enemies have made us far less prosperous and less safe. They have made us far, far weaker and set us on a disastrous course. Trump will at least attempt to reverse that, whereas Hillary will double down on it.

A President Trump will also drive the entire elite establishment crazy and all of the hypocritical and holier-than-thou leftists will be clutching their pearls and rushing to their safe spaces (where they will write checks to left wing agitators to cause trouble). He might be worth your vote for that alone, but really, consider the ramifications of the policies above closely before you step into the ballot box.

That’s really what this crazy game of politics is all about in the end.

So this is probably the ugliest and most depressing election in the history of this country given the amount of mudslinging on both sides.

However, I would suggest that it’s also critically important to understand that it is the first election in our history in which the mainstream media has become an active proponent of one of the candidates to an extreme degree. The negative coverage of Trump by ALL of the mainstream media is unprecedented. In fact, a recent report showed that 96% of those in the media who donated money gave it to the Democrats. In addition, the negative of coverage of Trump vs. Clinton is something on the order of 20 to 1. This is true no matter where you go in the mainstream media, whether it’s ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The New York times and all print media, or even online sites like Yahoo News.

As a result, the American people are not getting the full story — unless they are proactive about educating themselves. The mainstream media is working overtime to destroy Trump and prop up Hillary by focusing almost exclusively on “Trump bashing” over issues that are of no importance in terms of policies that will actually affect us and the future of this country. Yes, he brings much of it on himself but the bias is relentless and pervasive across all of the mainstream media.

I have observed the Clintons for 25 years, and in my opinion, Trump is a choir boy compared to the both of them. Hillary Clinton is a woman who stayed married to a man that she very likely knew raped Juanita Broadrick, and assaulted many others. She kept up a marriage of convenience to that despicable human being even after his escapades with an intern inside the sacred walls of the oval office and his subsequent impeachment for lying about it. Instead of leaving him like any self-respecting woman would have done, she defended him and engaged in vicious character assassination against his victims. Why? Because she wanted to ride his coattails to the presidency someday. She sold her soul for power.

And, even worse, she acted as an attorney to get a rapist of a twelve year old girl, whom she knew was guilty, off the charge of first degree rape and then bragged about how clever she was to get him such a light sentence. Listen to the whole tape linked to above and then tell me she cares one iota about women and children. This poor girl had been raped into a five day coma by two men at once and was never able to have children as a result, yet Hillary got the perpetrator off and then laughed about it afterwards.

Hillary Clinton and her husband are corrupt, power-lusting sociopaths with no conscience. She has even taken millions of dollars in “pay to play” money for the Clinton Foundation from countries that treat women worse than dogs and throw homosexuals off buildings, yet she poses as a defender of women and gays while feigning “outrage” over Trump’s mere words about his lustful thoughts, spoken in private, when he was in showbiz, not politics.

Then we have the incident in Benghazi, Libya, when Mrs. Clinton was Secretary of State. First, she exhibited dereliction of duty in not providing the necessary security to Ambassador Stevens, despite over 600 requests for more security. This gross negligence and callous disregard for her own embassy appointees resulted in the deaths of Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith during the initial assault. Then, during the 13-hour raid, she and Obama left all of the incredibly heroic Americans who defended the compound twisting in the wind with no help or support until it was too late and they finally suffered a mortar attack that killed Ty Woods and Glen Doherty.

Then, knowing full well it had been a coordinated terrorist attack (two in fact, at separate compounds), she lied to the American people, claiming it was a “spontaneous demonstration,” triggered by a silly Youtube video. Even worse, she then incredibly proceeded to tell the same lie directly to the faces of the parents of the men who were killed. And for the coup de grace, when she appeared before Congress to discuss the matter, she famously shrieked, “what difference does it make,” while callously referring to “four dead Americans.”

She will do or say anything to get elected. When caught on video at a fundraiser, she showed the real Hillary when she arrogantly demonized half of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables,” saying they are “irredeemable,” and then went on to tick off all of the silly leftist insults she could think of. Watch the video again and note the incredible arrogance of her delivery and her disgusting smirking after she delivers the lines.

Hillary Clinton is a disgrace, a liar, a fraud, and a power-at-all-costs leftist who will destroy this country. Yes, Trump is egotistical, he’s vulgar, he can be grossly immature, and he has a big mouth, but at least he wears all of his demons on his sleeve. What you see is what you get and his flaws are pretty consistent with normal human nature. Whereas with Hillary you are getting someone who has spent a lifetime as a cold, calculating liar obsessed with power. She will say one thing to your face and then think nothing of knifing you in the back. Just read all of the Wikileaks documents if you doubt that. She exhibited gross incompetence as Secretary of State, has achieved nothing of productive value in her life, made her money through bribery and corruption via the Clinton Foundation, and recklessly put our national security at risk by using a private email server because she thinks she is above the law — yet she feels a neurotic entitlement to rule. And rule she will, like a scorned Maleficent.

But even putting character aside, there are so many far more substantive issues that make Trump the clear choice in this election. In simplest terms, his proposed economic and national security policies are far superior and those are what will effect us and our children the most. He will also push back at the political correctness (i. e., “liberal fascism) that has been strangling this country.

If anyone still thinks that Hillary is the better choice, PLEASE read the article I’ve linked to below from Frontpage Magazine in its entirety. This is one of the best summaries of the many reasons this woman should never become President. It makes a very comprehensive and substantive case without resorting to the Clinton’s main tactic, which has always been “the politics of personal destruction.”

The Clinton RecordA devastating expose of the most unfit and undeserving individual ever to seek the American presidency

I truly cannot believe that any American who has educated themselves about this despicable woman would ever contemplate voting for her. From the above article…

“Never in American history has anyone as unfit and undeserving as Hillary Clinton run for U.S. President. While she stands on the threshold of being elected to the White House, she quite literally belongs in a prison cell. This article lays out the case against her, chapter and verse.”

Back in 2008, in a fruitless attempt to dissuade as many people as possible from voting for Barack Obama, I laid out 7 major reasons why his presidency would be a disaster. In looking back, I must say that I was very prescient. However, I take no solace in that. These predictions were quite easy, given the principles the man espoused and the people he learned from and admired such as Saul Alinsky and Jeremiah Wright. Still, it may be instructive to take a look at my predictions and see how they played out for our country. Yes, your vote does matter.

Reason #1: He will take more of our money, and further destroy our economy, by drastically increasing taxes and regulations.

Check. Obama has drastically increased taxes across the board as you can see here. Many of the taxes are on businesses and the healthcare industry, but keep in mind those are indirect taxes on all of us, because those costs are always passed on to the consumer. If you work, there is a much bigger tax bite under Obama than previously. A huge portion of Obama’s billions in tax increases have been on the middle class. Despite his campaign pledges to the contrary, he has heavily increased taxes on the middle class, raised the capital gains tax, increased the death tax, removed various retirement account deductions, and even decimated 529 College Savings plans by taxing them so heavily.

“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” [Video]

Did you really believe him?

As far as regulations, it has been central planning on steroids…

Did you know that under Obama, there have been 20,642 new regulations added? What is a “regulation?” The best way to think of it is as an unconstitutional law — in other words, the government interfering where it shouldn’t. All of this regulation has been a huge drain on our economy by burdening businesses and crushing their ability to innovate, grow, and reinvest in their companies and workers.

More than $22 billion per year in new regulatory costs were imposed on Americans last year, pushing the total burden for the Obama years to exceed $100 billion annually. As the Heritage Foundation put it, “That’s a dollar for every star in the galaxy, or one for every second in 32 years.”

A discussion of the regulations themselves is obviously beyond the scope of this article, but if you are interested, the Heritage Foundation put out a comprehensive report you can read called “Red Tape Rising.”

Last but not least, let us not forget his crowning achievement. Mr. Obama has amazingly managed to spend more money than all of the other Presidents combined! That means from George Washington, up to and including George W. Bush. When he got into office, the national debt was at $10.6 trillion, it now sits at $20 trillion! That means the debt will have very nearly doubled during his eight years in office, and there is much more debt ahead with the abandonment of “sequestration” spending caps enacted in 2011.

This is a “debt bomb” planted for future generations to have to deal with and we should all be ashamed of ourselves for allowing it to happen.

Reason #2: He will ruin the quality and increase the cost of health care by socializing medicine.

Check. But “if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. ”

Nothing will be more indicative of Obama’s economic legacy than the so-called Affordable Care Act, a socialist monstrosity shoved down our throats by corrupt machinations in Congress, while it was opposed by the majority of the American people.

In attempting to sell this albatross to the American people, Obama claimed it would save money and require no real changes to your current medical situation. Again, the results of getting the government even more heavily involved in 1/6 of our economy had predictable results. Mr. Obama promised Obamacare would provide “more choice, more competition, lower costs.” Instead, Americans have less choice, less competition and higher costs.

First, the costs of healthcare for everyone have gone up, not down. In fact, a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office says that healthcare costs for the average family will balloon over 60% over the next ten years. The report states that private health insurance premiums will increase by about 5 percent annually — a rate that outpaces the gross domestic product by 2 percentage points. By 2025, employment-based coverage (health-care insurance an employer offers) will cost 60 percent more than it does today. For an average family, that means an increase of $24,500 per year! For those with an individual plan, that’s still a $10,000 per year increase. For this current year, it’s already an average $4,500 increase per taxpayer.

But it gets worse, because you have to remember that all of these increases in cost due to government meddling also come with another cost — TAXES.

The CBO also reports that Obamacare will cost taxpayers $1.34 trillion over the next decade, an increase of $136 billion from the CBO’s predictions in 2015. In 2016 alone, Obamacare will cost taxpayers a total of $110 billion. So not only are you suffering huge cost increases with a lower quality of care, you also get stuck with a trillion dollar tax bill over the next ten years.

Somebody must be profiting from this though right? What about those evil insurance companies, they must be the ones sticking it to us? Actually, they are also getting crushed by this. As this Washington Post article explains…

UnitedHealth Group announced that, after estimated losses of more than $1 billion for 2015 and 2016 under Obamacare, the company was pulling out of most of its ill-fated exchanges. In fact, commercial insurers across the country are hemorrhaging money on Obamacare at alarming rates. Health Care Service Corp. (which owns Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliates in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas) has lost “well north of $2 billion” in its first two years — twice as much as UnitedHealth. Highmark, the nation’s fourth-largest Blue Cross plan, lost nearly $600 million in 2015. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has projected it will lose more than $400 million in the first two years, and the company has said it may leave the exchanges entirely next year.

As far as those on the Obamacare plans, rates are climbing drastically and the deductibles are so high they have become almost useless. In addition, 8.1 million Americans have been hit with $1.7 Billion in Obamacare penalties, according to Investor’s Business Daily.

So who is the winner in this? Nobody. Unless you want to count corrupt and foolish politicians like Mr. Obama who are able to pull the wool over the eyes of so many people with “feel-good” policies like this that are a disaster in practice. But it’s not his problem now, he’ll be out of office in a few months and will be laughing all the way to the 19th hole, while the rest of us suffer from this monstrosity for decades.

Reason #3: He will weaken the military and leave our children less safe by retreating in the war vs. radical Islam and generally trying to appease our enemies.

Check. Except I never imagined he could be in office for 8 years without uttering the words “radical Islam.”

Not only has weakened our national security by engaging in what Charles Krauthammer rightly calls “serial appeasement,” of our enemies, he has completely retreated in the ideological war against radical Islam by being an apologist for Islam at every turn and failing to even name the enemy.

It was easy to tell that he would do very little to pursue anything like a victory over our enemies, but who could have predicted he would precipitously pull all of our troops out of Iraq and create a vacuum to be filled by the likes of Isis (who he naively called the “JV” team of jihadis)?

Who could have predicted that he would cut a deal with Iran that would give them the financial shot-in-the-arm they needed to ramp up their nuclear ambitions — and then send them over $1 billion in a “cash for a hostages” deal?

And who could have known we would have so many terrorist attacks on our own soil, primarily because of the loose immigration policies and the incompetence of an FBI that has been hamstrung by Obama’s Justice Department. For example, in the recent bombings in NY, the perpetrators own father had turned him in to the FBI two years ago!

While the Middle East is on fire and the jihadi threat looms larger than ever… with daily attacks against civilian targets all over the world… what has our Commander-In-Chief been doing to strengthen and inspire our military?

Nothing. Actually, he’s cutting our troop levels. They are expected to fall to 450,000 this year, down from 570,000 in 2010. With the Jihad growing exponentially, plus a hostile North Korea and aggressive Russia, this is hardly the time to be cutting troops. While the threats continue to mount, Obama continues to reduce the capability (not to mention morale) of our military. According to The Washington Times:

The U.S. military is shedding so many troops and weapons it is only “marginally able” to defend the nation and falls short of the Obama administration’s national security strategy, according to a new report by The Heritage Foundation on Tuesday.

Again, given his anti-American view of America and our place in the world this was entirely predictable…. yet is very dangerous for Americans.

Reason #4: He will increase the cost of energy – and limit our choices – by strangling production and increasing regulations.

Check. There’s no better example of this than the Obama Administration’s war on the coal industry via the EPA. According to a recently released report by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), more than 80 percent of the nearly 18 gigawatts of electric generating capacity retired in 2015 was conventional steam coal. This represents 4.6 percent of the nation’s coal capacity at the start of 2015. Regulations such as the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards are costing the coal industry tens of billions of dollars per year. From 2008 to 2012 the coal industry lost more than 50,000 jobs.

The problem is not just for those in the coal industry. Reducing capacity drives up prices for all the rest of us. Although Mr. Obama and his cohorts on the left are under the delusion that subsidized energy from solar and wind will take the place of fossil fuels the facts say otherwise. Despite $150 billion in subsidies, the amount of “clean” energy has only increased from 2% to 4%.

In addition, we have the absurd regulations to reduce carbon dioxide in an attempt to combat the delusional theory of “manmade global warming.” Energy Ventures Analysis (EVA) just released its analysis of the EPA’s “Clean Power Plan” (CPP), which mandates a 32 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 from 2005 levels. While the EPA claims these regulations will be virtually cost free, this study finds:

Consumers will pay an additional $214 billion by 2030;

45 states will see double digit increases in wholesale electricity costs; and

16 states will see a 25 percent or higher increase in wholesale electricity costs.

The bottom line: as with everything the government meddles with, you will pay more for energy and be left holding the bag.

Reason #5: Cocky Ignorance and laughable hubris.

Here I was talking about all of the over-the-top and egomaniacal statements candidate Obama made, such as this whopper:

Generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment…. when we provided healthcare for the sick, jobs for the jobless… when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal….”

Translation: all of the bad things are rising and the good things are falling. The “Obama Moment,” set us into a downward spiral it may be impossible to climb out of.

Reason #6: A liberal supermajority in Congress.

Here is one that I got wrong but it didn’t really matter. There was no liberal supermajority in Congress, but the Republicans have been so pathetic there might as well have been. Despite that fact that the Republicans control more seats in Congress than any time since the 1920’s they have been completely feckless when it comes to opposing Obama’s policies.

I don’t have space here to get into everything they caved on, but here’s a 2015 article by Senator Ted Cruz, titled “The Republicans In Congress Are Surrendering To Obama,” that sums it all up very nicely.

First, shortly after taking the reins of power in the Senate, the GOP-led Congress fully funded President Obama’s illegal and unconstitutional amnesty.

Then, the GOP-led Congress institutionalized and expanded Obamacare policies by permanently surrendering on the so-called “doc fix.” To accomplish this feat GOP leadership broke with the long-established bipartisan practice of paying for the doc fix and added half a trillion dollars to our nation’s debt over two decades.

Next, Senate GOP leadership facilitated the approval of Obama’s disastrous Iranian nuclear deal. They did so via a convoluted, backwards disapproval process that was designed to fail, and then did nothing to prevent the deal’s implementation or stop more than $100 billion from going to Iran and its terror proxies.

Here I was concerned about reinstatment of things such as the Orwellian “Fairness Doctrine,” which fortunately has not happened. However, free speech is dramatically on the decline due in large part to the tenor set by the Obama administration. It is common now for anyone who doesn’t observe the politically correct party lines of the left to be shouted down on campus, or even have their events shut down due to bomb threats and death threats as has been recently happening to Breitbart Editor Milo Yiannopoluis.

Despite Obama’s recent lip service to free speech when he speaks on college campuses, his actions over the past eight years show a hostility to free speech. In a good article at Reason Magazine covering this, Anthony Fisher writes:

Following the January 2015 massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, President Obama defended the “universal belief in the freedom of expression,” adding, “The fact that this was an attack on journalists, an attack on our free press, also underscores that these terrorists fear freedom of speech and freedom of the press.”

Needless to say, this hostility the left has for freedom of speech has been on full display this election season, with Donald Trump’s supporters being continually harrassed, assaulted and beaten after his rallies, or even for simply wearing one of Trump’s “Make American Great Again” hats, as was caught in this video. Isn’t it interesting that the Wikileaks dumps just revealed that these agitators at Trump rallies were bought and paid for by the DNC?

In Conclusion

Yes, given the basic philosophy and ideas of this President, the above developments were very predictable. As bad as the above is, there were several other development that were not as easily predicted but equally disastrous. For example, although it was predicted by some, I never would have thought the racial divisions would have become as bad as they are now… and who could have conceived of the extent of the left’s war against the police with the rise of Black Lives Matter? All of that has been made far worse by the tone and rhetoric of Mr. Obama, who has done nothing to attempt to stop all of this nonsense which is based on the false premise of systemic racism in the police force nationwide.

It’s true that some are not feeling the brunt of all of the economic destruction. If you are a rich Hollywood actor, or a pampered professional athlete, higher taxes and regulations and a stagnant economy have no serious effect on your life. If you have a lot of money in the stock market, it’s true that you have benefited by the fed keeping interest rates close to zero — but all that’s doing is creating a bubble and kicking the can down the road. If you are a government employee and on the receiving end of the gravy train, maybe you think this is all swell. But I believe a majority of Americans are waking up to the fact that all of these policies are making their lives more difficult and making their children less safe, while creating very ominous debts and threats for them in the future. The middle class is getting crushed under this as they always do under big big government socialist policies.

It is clearly beyond time to reverse course, which means we cannot double down on this mistake by electing Hillary Clinton. Stay tuned because that will be the subject of my next article….